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Eco-innovations are widely considered the best possible solution to fight the menace of environmental degradation. Therefore, in this analysis, we try to examine the impact of eco-innovations and environmental entrepreneurship on SME performance in China from 1998 to 2020. In order to get the short- and long-run estimates, we have employed the QARDL model that can estimate across various quantiles. The findings of the QARDL model confirm the positive impact of eco-innovations in increasing the number of SMEs in the long run, as the estimates attached to eco-innovations are positive and significant across most quantiles. Similarly, the estimates attached to financial development and institutional quality are positively significant across most quantiles. However, in the short run, the results are inconclusive for almost all variables. As far as the asymmetric impact of eco-innovations on SMEs is concerned, it is confirmed both in the short and long run. However, the asymmetric impacts of financial development and institutional quality on SMEs are only confirmed in the long run. Based on the results, important policy suggestions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transportation sector is a crucial driver of energy intensity and environmental degradation. Therefore, we aim to explore the nexus of transportation taxes, energy intensity, and CO2 emissions for the BICS economies. The econometric approaches, CS-ARDL and PMG-ARDL, have been employed to compute the estimates. The long-run estimates of the green transportation tax variable are negatively significant in both energy intensity and CO2 emissions models irrespective of the estimation technique. These findings imply that green transportation taxes help reduce energy intensity and CO2 emissions in BICS economies. Conversely, in the short-run, the effects of transportation taxes on energy intensity and CO2 emissions are mixed and inconclusive. Hence, transportation taxes are necessary to keep the polluters under control not only from the transport sector but also serve as a deterrent for other sectors as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agriculture sector has a 21 percent share in global CO2 emission. It is contributing the 40 percent share in the gross domestic product of OBORI (One Belt and One Road Initiative) economies. Therefore, the present work intends to evaluate the role of agriculture and forest on environmental degradation from 1980 to 2017 for OBORI economies. The cross-sectional dependence, and order of integration are checked by cross-sectional dependence and second-generation panel unit roots tests respectively. Afterwards, the Wester-Lund co-integration test infers the existence of co-integration between under-considered variables for OBORI region. The empirical results from Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) suggest that agriculture and energy demand cause to upsurge the environmental degradation. While, the forest is improving the environment quality. The authorities may consider the efficient energy utilizing, and eco-friendly techniques to overcome the deteriorating effects of energy usage and agriculture on environment respectively. The heterogeneous panel causality test infers a bidirectional causality between environmental degradation, finance, agriculture, and energy demand respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China launched the One Belt & One Road (OBOR) initiative to minimize the energy resource shortage. The China's nearby countries are rich in energy resources especially Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Asian countries which make them ideal locations to cooperate with China in terms of energy resources, as 42.8% of world energy consumption belongs to OBOR countries. The present study elaborates the spatial distribution pattern of energy consumption disparities and its impact on environment. To do this, an entropy approach is utilized to compute the energy consumption inequalities in OBOR and its regions. The spatial and Pareto analysis show that MENA, East, and Southeast Asian economies have the highest degree of energy consumption inequalities, while European and Central Asian economies show the lowest energy consumption inequalities in OBOR region. The long-run estimates indicate that energy consumption inequalities enhance the CO2 emission in OBOR and its region except South and Southeast Asia. Financial development also has a significantly positive impact on CO2 emission in all models for OBOR and its regions except East Asia. Based on findings, the spatial distribution analysis is applicable to maintain balance in regional energy consumption inequality within OBOR and its regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to find out relationships among the energy, environment, and the industrial production for a developing country which is in earlier stages of development. It also tests a few contradicting hypotheses to find the possible shape of an environmental Kuznets curve. Using the time series data, the study finds robust long-run relationships between energy, environment, and industrial production for Pakistan. The scale economy is also assumed. It is also found that the capital and labor elasticities of income show increasing returns in the presence of energy and emission variables. It finds evidence of EKC in a quadratic restricted model but not in a cubic function. This analysis implies that the focus of policy authorities should be to persuade environment-friendly energy resources. After an initial stage of economic development, society has to take serious measure to tackle the issues of environmental degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aspiration of study is to explore the financial development-carbon footprint nexus in One Belt and Road initiative (BRI) region utilizing the panel dataset from 1990–2017. The cross-sectional dependence tests and second-generation panel unit tests were applied to affirm the cross-section dependence and integration level. The panel regression estimators from the Driscoll-Kraay standard error method for robust estimators in the presence of cross-sectional dependence have been applied to compute the estimators concerning the financial development-carbon footprint nexus for One Belt and Road economies. The estimates infer that financial development, urban population, and FDI have an adverse effect on carbon footprint. Furthermore, economic growth and energy consumption pollute the environment by enhancing the carbon footprint. Based on findings, it infers that financial development is a potential instrument to keep the environment through financial reforms. The estimates signify that it is necessary to allocate resources for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy conservation projects in order to moderate environmental degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global trade plays an imperative role in the world economy that yields environmental degradation. Therefore, the current paper's ambitions are to explore the trade-air pollution nexuses by introducing the value-added trade (VT) concept from a global value chain stance. The value-added trade (VT) indicator is constructed by the World Input-Output (WIOD) classifications database. Owing to scanty data accessibility, the sample set is reduced to 39 countries covering the period from 1995 to 2009. Furthermore, this paper is also contributing by including the eight different pathways of per capita air pollution in terms of ammonia (NH3), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrogen oxides (NOx), nitrous oxide (N2O), sulphur oxides (SOx) and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) respectively. The valuable outcomes from empirical analysis have been found; Firstly, it explores that the preliminary stage of the development of value-added trade (VT) has a positive impact on air-bonds pollution. However, in the later stage of the economic development, trade improves the environmental quality as the square of value-added trade (VT2) has a negative impact on air pollution. Moreover, it also elaborates that the magnitude impact of trade on carbon monoxide (CO) air pollution is more than the other seven air pollutants. Thirdly, the inverted U-shape in the trade-air pollution Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, the non-linear relationship between trade and pollution is also validated in all eight air pollutants indicators. Policy proposals for green economy that underlines the global value chain stance and environmental factors in the growing economy are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theme of paper is to explore the trade-environment relationship and the role of institutions for 117 countries from global standpoint and five regions: Sub Saharan, European, Middle East and North Africa, Asia and Pacific, and Latin America and Caribbean, using the panel data span 2002-2014. By considering the endogeneity problem, to validate the nature of trade-environment nexuses, we applied the GMM first difference model in two steps. Likewise, Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality analysis is employed to affirm the causal relationship among the concern variables. The empirical findings of this study validate that the overall trade is significantly good to environment for sample countries (117) of the entire World, Europe, Asia, and Pacific regions. In further assessment, we incorporate interactive terms of institutions with trade, scale effect, and scale-technique effect. The estimated results confirm that institution is the persistent instrument for resolving the environmental problems. Furthermore, we find the evidence of inverted u shape EKC in overall selected sample of the World, Sub-Saharan, Europe, Asia, and Pacific regions. In contrast, there is no confirmation of inverted u shape EKC hypothesis in Middle East and North Africa regions. Similarly, no strong evidence of inverted u-shaped EKC hypothesis is observed in Latin-America and Caribbean region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional energy demand is needed to accomplish the mega-projects of the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI). As energy consumption is one of the prime determinants of environmental degradation, the present study investigates the impact of energy inequalities on environmental degradation along with financial development. The entropy approach is applied to quantify the three energy consumption inequalities; average, between, and total energy consumption inequality respectively. The energy consumption inequality of BRI economies follows an uprising temporal trend. The estimates reveal that East Asia and South Asia have the highest and lowest energy consumption inequality among the BRI regions. Within regions, it is found that Central Asia has the lowest, and East Asia has the highest energy inequality among the BRI regions, respectively. Based on bootstrapping, the generalized least square (GLS) is applied to quantify the impact of energy consumption inequalities on environmental degradation along financial development. The energy inequalities have a statistically positive impact on environmental degradation in BRI regions, East Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and North African region (MENA), and Southeast Asia respectively. In contrast, South Asian economies are sustaining environmental quality despite the energy consumption inequalities. Financial development also has a significantly major impact on environmental degradation in BRI, and its regions except for Central Asia, and MENA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of studies reveal that tourism industry makes a substantial contribution towards socioeconomic growth and development of tourism led economies. However, tourism steered economic growth and development is achieved at the cost of environmental pollution and degradation. The main objective of this study is to examine the effect of tourists’ arrivals on environmental pollution caused by Carbon Dioxide emissions in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore over the period of 1990–2014. Some other regressors namely energy consumption and income are also used in the multivariate model. The Zivot–Andrews test is employed to determine unit-root and presence of structural break in the data. Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares estimator is used as an analytical technique for unknown parameters estimation. The empirical results reveal that tourism has a significant positive effect on environmental pollution in Malaysia. However, an inverse relationship between tourism and environmental pollution is observed in Thailand and Singapore. Empirical findings suggest that sustainable economic growth and development should be ensured by implementing prudent public policy where host governments must strive to promote socially and environmentally responsible tourism industries in their respective countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]